until my nineteenth year, when I resigned and went over to England." On the other hand, as already noted, he gives it as his father's view that he was not really a soldier at all. The formal discharge paper is dated 29th March, 1762, so that if William Herschel was ever actually a unit of the army, the discharge paper merely registered an accomplished fact: he had been out of the army and out of the country for four and a half years. Whether or not he was ipso facto a soldier by virtue of his position in the band, there can be no doubt that his departure for England was actuated by the desire to avoid being recalled to the colours. The evidence of his sister Caroline, then a little girl of seven, is decisive on this point. "I can now comprehend," she says, "the reason why we little ones were continually sent out of the way, and why I had only by chance a passing glimpse of my brother as I was sitting at the entrance of a street door, when he glided like a shadow along, wrapped in a greatcoat, followed by my mother with a parcel containing his accoutrements. After he had succeeded in passing unnoticed beyond the last sentinel at Herrenhausen, he changed his dress. . . . My brother's keeping himself so carefully from all notice was undoubtedly to avoid the danger of being pressed, as all unengaged young men were forced into the service. Even the clergy, unless they had livings, were not exempted."
At Hamburg, William Herschel was joined by his brother Jacob, and they embarked together for England. Arriving in London, they were greatly assisted by the friends whom they had made on the occasion of their previous visit. Nevertheless, they seem to have had a hard struggle. William Herschel had not half a guinea in his possession when he arrived in London. He went into a music shop and asked if he could be of any use in copying music. An opera was placed in his hands, and his promptitude in returning the copy so impressed the master of the shop that he kept him in his employment for a
